FF freezes when watching YT videos

[MozillaMonkey]

This happens far far too often.
What gives?
Anybody know?

The video itself freezes but the audio keeps going.
I can't do anything with my computer/ FF, or anything.
Short of Ctrl-Alt-Del shutdown.

After a minutes or so control is given back to FF.

Surely others must experience this?

[DanRaisch]

How much memory on that system?

Have you tried starting Firefox in Mozilla Safe Mode? http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_mode
If no improvement using Safe Mode, do you have the same problem if you create a new profile and test it with no extensions or non-default themes installed?
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager
and
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Creating_a_ne ... on_Windows

[dfoulkes]

I also have this issue with YT. I've basically lived with it now and found that when the vid starts up YT wants to run it in High-def and I've found that lowering to just below that level makes it work fine. I've tested this out in a new test profile with no changes to it...turned H.A off and on... still the problem exists in that test profile. I made sure drivers were up to date. Works fine in IE and Chrome...but FX is my tool for the internet.

I've basically figured that this 13 year old laptop is just getting pushed close to its max vid abilities.. plus I can't add more memory... so, as I stated before, I just take the HD down when the vid starts.

[jscher2000]

Hi MozillaMonkey, if you right-click the video and check "Stats for nerds" is YouTube serving you VP9-encoded video? This is more demanding of your CPU than VP8 video so you might consider blocking it. I have a userscript for that, but haven't tested in legacy Greasemonkey.

Legacy GM if you don't have it: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addo ... rsion-3.17

Script: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/37368 ... om-youtube

[MozillaMonkey]

How much memory on that system?

Have you tried starting Firefox in Mozilla Safe Mode? http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_mode
If no improvement using Safe Mode, do you have the same problem if you create a new profile and test it with no extensions or non-default themes installed?
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager
and
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Creating_a_ne ... on_Windows

2G mem.
Just tried Safe Mode and it stopped the video freezing!
Although the video wasn't smooth.
Only way to get smooth video is to choose the worst quality (which is horrible).
TY.

[MozillaMonkey]

Hi MozillaMonkey, if you right-click the video and check "Stats for nerds" is YouTube serving you VP9-encoded video? This is more demanding of your CPU than VP8 video so you might consider blocking it. I have a userscript for that, but haven't tested in legacy Greasemonkey.

Legacy GM if you don't have it: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addo ... rsion-3.17

Script: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/37368 ... om-youtube

Codec vp9 (244)
Conn speed 6383 kbps
Net Act. 0Kb
Buffer health 122.20s
Dropped frames 8694/13597

[DanRaisch]

Try turning off hardware acceleration. Look under Tools->Options->??? I don't have a version 52 installation and don't remember the next steps in that menu path.

[MozillaMonkey]

Try turning off hardware acceleration. Look under Tools->Options->??? I don't have a version 52 installation and don't remember the next steps in that menu path.

Thanks Dan.

I had this unchecked: Use hardware acceleration when available.

[DanRaisch]

In that case it could be an installed extension that is at issue. Safe Mode disables all extensions.

Do you have the same problem if you create a new profile and test it with no extensions or non-default themes installed?
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager
and
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Creating_a_ne ... on_Windows

[Brummelchen]

Vp9 is not really xp compatible, dropped from adobe. Pls use search engine for details and half baked solutions.

[James]

MozillaMonkey, to see what little of HTML5 player you can support on the old EOL WinXP is at https://www.youtube.com/html5/ as ideally all check marks should be blue.

Windows Vista and later comes with appropriate media feature stuff if in Canada or US and downloads for those using N or KN editions of said Windows. Microsoft does not support XP with this.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/fi ... ox-windows

You could perhaps dual boot with a light 32-bit Linux distro to full use HTML5 players that is in increasing use over the Flash Player Plugin now days to be be more cross platform. Plus you would then be able to use current Firefox versions.

[MozillaMonkey]

MozillaMonkey, to see what little of HTML5 player you can support on the old EOL WinXP is at https://www.youtube.com/html5/ as ideally all check marks should be blue.

... You could perhaps dual boot with a light 32-bit Linux distro to full use HTML5 players that is in increasing use over the Flash Player Plugin now days to be be more cross platform. Plus you would then be able to use current Firefox versions.

Thanks James. A couple of things.

Why is it when I check the https://www.youtube.com/html5/ page
FF gives me a Red exclamation mark for these:
-H.264
-MSE & H.264
but Chrome doesn't?

It proves it is not a hardware/OS issue, but rather a software/browser issue.

I will be migrating to my notebook which has Win 8.1 so these issues should
go away shortly.
I just have to get my apps/data all lined up in a row on the notebook.
No easy task when my desktop has a 160G drive and my notebook has a 30G flash
with just 3G spare right now.
Been working with this desktop/MB for 11+ years so hard to cut the cord.

[jscher2000]

Why is it when I check the https://www.youtube.com/html5/ page
FF gives me a Red exclamation mark for these:
-H.264
-MSE & H.264
but Chrome doesn't?

It proves it is not a hardware/OS issue, but rather a software/browser issue.

It's a Firefox-on-XP issue that MPEG decoding is not available because Microsoft never released Media Foundation for XP. Chrome can do it because the patented bits are included in Chrome. Mozilla doesn't do that, perhaps because of a license compatibility problem -- incorporating patented MPEG decoding in an open source browser. You can probably find an explanation if you search it up.

[James]

Why is it when I check the https://www.youtube.com/html5/ page
FF gives me a Red exclamation mark for these:
-H.264
-MSE & H.264
but Chrome doesn't?

It proves it is not a hardware/OS issue, but rather a software/browser issue.

No this does not prove to be a Firefox issue. It is a OS issue.

As I stated due to not having the media feature packs (that Vista and later has from Microsoft) which gives you codecs you need, the Firefox web browser on WinXP can only support so much with HTML5 players.

Chrome in a sense cheats by coming with its own codecs. However as you may know Chromium, Chrome and Opera dropped support of the EOL Windows XP and Vista back in April 2016. None of the major web browsers supports WinXP and Vista anymore.

If you are on a budget and or have low hardware specs with CPU and RAM then a light Linux distro like Lubuntu or Xubuntu among others will allow you to run current Firefox versions. You will also be able to fully use the HTML5 players used by major sites Youtube, twitch.tv and many news sites now days though one has to make sure packages like FFmpeg is installed..

[MozillaMonkey]

Why is it when I check the https://www.youtube.com/html5/ page
FF gives me a Red exclamation mark for these:
-H.264
-MSE & H.264
but Chrome doesn't?

It proves it is not a hardware/OS issue, but rather a software/browser issue.

No this does not prove to be a Firefox issue. It is a OS issue.

OK thanks.

If you are on a budget and or have low hardware specs with CPU and RAM then a light Linux distro like Lubuntu or Xubuntu among others will allow you to run current Firefox versions. You will also be able to fully use the HTML5 players used by major sites Youtube, twitch.tv and many news sites now days though one has to make sure packages like FFmpeg is installed..

Budget is not the issue.

I have no particular allegiance to Windoze. The problem is one of convenience now.
I have so much data in programs that just don't run on Linux.
To get all that data into Linux compatible programs would be an absolute nightmare.

For example can you get Ecco Pro data into a Linux app?

The other issue for me is finding hardware that I am compatible with.
That is, hardware that doesn't affect me adversely with EMF's.

I discovered that the Intel Atom Z3740 processor is compatible with me and so I purchased
a bunch of notebooks/tablets that have it for their CPU.
Many hard drives and even USB sticks hurt my head!